As public wireless telecommunications service based on CDMA becomes available, wireless service providers are increasingly interested in offering private wireless network service to select customers. To do this, the wireless service providers have two apparent options: (1) install a separate wireless network to service each private network, or (2) change the existing air interface standards to support both public and private networks and make the concomitant hardware modifications to support the changes in the air interface. Both options are considered undesirable because of the huge expense associated with implementing either option.
Furthermore, the establishment of virtual private networks requires the capability to query various home location registers for information regarding what feature sets should be afforded to the users of those private networks. Unfortunately, neither the home location registers nor the protocols used for querying them are designed to provide that capability, and the cost of retrofitting them for that purpose is generally considered prohibitive.